It saddened me to read such hatred from someone so misinformed as EM Izett in November 4 edition of The Weekend Sun.

It is just such misinformed people that spread the threat of terror around the world.
It is the evil in people's hearts and ignorance that make them ‘far from peaceful'; not just because they are Muslim.
Has the writer not read about the terror that Christians have perpetrated throughout history, even to the present day in Central Africa by The Lord's Resistance Movement.
Has he not read about the slaughter of 100,000 plus Cathars (a peaceful Christian sect) by Pope Innocent 3rd in the 12th Century, or again in France in the 17th Century, the St Bartholomew Day Massacre where 30,000 Christians were killed in one night in Paris by other Christians?
Has he visited the Catholic cathedrals in Spain and heard in his mind the screams of the tortured during the inquisition period? I could go on for pages about the wicked war-like nature of some so called Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims but none of these terror-mongers have a shred of the truth in them that their Prophets and founders taught.
Though I do not profess to be of any mainstream religion, the most peaceful church I have been in is the Catholic cathedral in central Tunis, Tunisia, a country that is 98% Muslim.
It would appear Muslims would not get that level of tolerance in Christian New Zealand.
New Zealand, that country that once lead the world in social reform and tolerant understanding. I have recently been asked while overseas about its racism.
I have now returned and can see and hear why I was asked such questions.
No…it is not Islam that needs to be quashed to bring peace, but for humans to open their hearts to love that is possible in this world what ever Teacher they follow.

BJ Williams, Tauranga.